Prejudice, Discrimination and Prosocial Behaviour

Question 1

Steph has just started her first semester of studying psychology at university. She hasn’t met many
people on campus yet but has made a small group of friends in her psychology classes. At lunch time,
the group starts chatting about other students around campus. Steph says that ‘all engineering
students drink a lot, are only interested in sport, and have really bad dress sense’. Steph is showing
signs of

Answer 1

prejudice

Question 2

The term ‘prejudice’ refers to

Answer 2

a pre-judgement based on a person’s groupmembership

Question 3

Sara, who works at a flower shop, dislikes students. She knows that if students came into the shop
she simply would not serve them. According to Allport (1954), her intention is which part of her
attitude?

Answer 3

The conative part

Question 4

If certain prejudices persevere over time and eventually become enshrined in society, they

Answer 4

can become legitimised by the norms of the community

Question 5

A shared and simplified image of members of a group is referred to as

Answer 5

a stereotype

Question 6

There is evidence that when a woman experiences a tyre puncture on a busy road she can expect to
receive reasonably prompt aid. This is likely to be due to

Answer 6

sex stereotyping

Question 7

James and Liz work for the same company, doing the same job. Although both succeed, their
rather traditional co-workers still

Answer 7

think that Liz’s success is due to her being treated more leniently; put Liz’s achievement down to her picking the easy parts out; attribute James’s achievement to his skill and ability

Question 8

The concept of tokenism can be summed up by which of the following statements?

Answer 8

If I make this gesture I won’t need to do any more.

Question 9

Mr Uppity thinks that immigrant kids who can’t speak fluent English should not be in his classroom,
so he doesn’t give them too much of his time. Then, as he expects, they do not perform too well in the
tests he marks. Here we have a clear case of

Answer 9

a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 10

People’s fear of confirming stereotypes by which they might be judged is referred to as

Answer 10

stereotype threat

Question 11

The frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 11

purports that all frustration leads to aggression, and all aggression comes from frustration

Question 12

You’ve been reading about the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and find that a scapegoat refers
to

Answer 12

a target against whom one can legitimately aggress without fear

Question 13

Prosocial behaviour can generally be defined as acts that

Answer 13

are positively valued by society

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of prosocial behaviour?

Answer 14

It follows all religious principles

Question 15

Prosocial behaviour includes the concepts of

Answer 15

bystander intervention; sympathy; helping

Question 16

Altruistic behaviour refers to behaviour that

Answer 16

is intended to benefit the person helped rather than the helper

Question 17

The case of the Kitty Genovese murder has been a major stumbling block in explaining helping
behaviour as

Answer 17

entirely biologically predisposed

Question 18

Paula watches her older sister Jenny share her bag of jelly beans with their little brother, Ryan. The
next week, Paula is given two biscuits for morning tea. She walks over to Ryan and offers to share one
with him. Paula’s behaviour is an example of

Answer 18

modelling

Question 19

Barry is a macho type, and was not sympathetic when reading a police report about a young
woman being hospitalised after a sexual assault at a gang party. ‘She would have had it coming to her’,
he thinks. This is an example of

Answer 19

the just-world hypothesis

Question 20

Latane and Darley’s (1968) cognitive model of bystander intervention proposed that

Answer 20

a person’s helping behaviour depends on a series of decisions

Question 21

People who are reluctant to help others are often themselves victims of

Answer 21

fear of social blunders

Question 22

Among individuals, a variable that impacts helping behaviour is

Answer 22

perceiving oneself to be competent

Question 23

Janet is studying at the library when she remembers that she needs to make a phone call. She can
be more confident about leaving her books on the desk if she

Answer 23

asks the student adjacent to her desk to look after her books

Question 24

Annette has been a willing helper for Jacinta, who is trying to write a psychology essay. Annette is
herself worried about an upcoming statistics test. She also knows that Jacinta shines at statistics.
Annette’s helping behaviour probably includes a good dose of

Answer 24

operating on the reciprocity principle